Saturday's G1 QIPCO Irish Champion S. at Leopardstown has a scarcely-believable quality, with a dual Derby winner, a 1000 Guineas and Oaks heroine and three Prix du Jockey-Club winners not even half of the story.
His Highness the Aga Khan's Harzand (Ire) (Sea the Stars {Ire}) is the focal point, as the Epsom Derby winner tends to be most years, but whether he is as effective at this shorter trip against a filly of the calibre of Minding (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) is the big question mark that hangs over him. Some would argue that the Ballydoyle filly should have been at Epsom 24 hours later than her date there in the Oaks, but a run against the colts has been held off until this special moment.
Almanzor (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) showed he is no ordinary winner of the G1 Prix du Jockey-Club when taking a strong renewal of the G2 Prix Guillaume d'Ornano over this trip at Deauville Aug. 15 and may not be as far behind the Irish stars as the ratings suggest. Then there are the heavyweight older horses, all making up a heady cocktail and a tactical quandary for all concerned. How fast the riders of the class horses get sucked into going will be key, as will luck-in-running in a race which has served up hard-luck stories in the past. Being too far off the speed among this collection of luminaries could prove as disastrous as the Tour de France riders getting detached from the front of the peloton on those frantic stages of the great cycling event. It will take nerves of steel and in-depth course knowledge to get it right.
For Dermot Weld, who did not declare the G1 Champion S. and G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup winner Fascinating Rock (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}), this task is one that Harzand will not shirk. “Harzand has many qualities and I think courage has to be up there at the very top,” he commented. “I think he progressed from Epsom to the Irish Derby and I'm of the opinion that he's progressed again. That's what I expect him to do.”
Jockey Pat Smullen has the job of getting the timing of his challenge right in this cauldron and added, “The mile and a quarter would have to be a little bit of a concern, but ease in the ground would counteract that. He's by no means a slow horse. When he won his maiden at Leopardstown I thought he was a horse that wanted to go further, but like all good horses do he's kept surprising me and pleasing me every time I've ridden him. Minding is head and shoulders above all the other three-year-old fillies. She's been exceptionally good to win at a mile, a mile and a quarter and a mile and a half. She is a stand-out three-year-old filly, but it's looking like one hell of a race.”
Minding has given the impression that she has been going through the motions against her own sex of late, despite her clear-cut wins over this trip in the G1 Pretty Polly S. at The Curragh June 26 and Goodwood's G1 Nassau S. July 30. Ryan Moore has long believed there is plenty in the tank and this opportunity is certain to bring it out into the open.
“She's very well, her work is very good and physically she's doing very well,” commented Aidan O'Brien, who is looking for an eighth renewal. “She has great scope, she can quicken, she travels and relaxes. I suppose her ability to quicken is probably her biggest strength and then her mind on top of that, as she can take racing. She can handle all types of ground and all types of tracks. She's an amazing filly really.”
It is incredible that Minding's stablemates Found (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), last year's runner-up who is a GI Breeders' Cup Turf heroine, and Highland Reel (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), whose last two starts have yielded a win in the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. at Royal Ascot July 23 and second to Postponed (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) in the G1 Juddmonte International at York Aug. 17, are under the radar.
O'Brien said of Found, who was last seen finishing runner-up in the G1 Yorkshire Oaks at York Aug. 18, “She ran a very good race in York and she's going to start kicking into gear for the last quarter of the season.”
This year's G1 Prince of Wales's S. winner My Dream Boat (Ire) (Lord Shanakill) was only fifth behind Godolphin's Hawkbill (Kitten's Joy) in the G1 Eclipse S. at Sandown July 2 and they re-oppose, with the latter trying to turn his fortunes around after a subsequent eighth in the Juddmonte International.
“He's had a nice break, we finished off very well in the autumn last year and I'm very much hoping we can do so this year,” My Dream Boat's trainer Clive Cox said. “I'm very pleased they've had some rain and he's been healthy since the Eclipse, which might have just come too soon after Ascot. We've got an edge back on him now.”
Hawkbill also needs the ground slower than he encountered behind Postponed and Highland Reel at York and trainer Charlie Appleby has applied headgear.
“The more rain the better for him and he goes there in great shape, but he's got to run a career-best to be in the frame against some great horses,” he said. “He's a horse for next year and we have to be realistic about taking on older horses in a proper race, but he's strengthening up and I've added the cheekpieces to help his concentration. He's not out of the reckoning and if he puts up that career-best he could be placed.”
Whether the best of the French can measure up against the premier Irish runners remains to be seen, with Almanzor having impressed in his metamorphosis into French Derby hero and leader of his generation.
He is part-owned by Gerard Augustin-Normand and his racing manager Sylvain Vidal said, “We're very excited and after the race we will know much more. Afterwards we will know whether our horse is good or very good.”
Last year's G1 Prix du Jockey-Club winner New Bay (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) adds another dimension after his warm-up success in the G3 Prix Gontaut-Biron at Deauville Aug. 15, with Andre Fabre's decision to enter the fray impossible to ignore. “The distance should suit him and we want to try and win another big race with him,” he commented. “He won a group three in Deauville in good style last time out and since then he has done really well.”
Surely one of the pace factors will be Success Days (Ire) (Jeremy), who beat Fascinating Rock in the G3 Royal Whip S. in what amounted to a career-best at The Curragh Aug. 21. “We're under no illusions that if he's going to be a factor in what looks a super renewal, he's going to have to run seven pounds better than he's ever run before,” trainer Ken Condon said. “He has it in him, hopefully, and it still looks like he's improving.”
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